The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr Olayemi Cardoso, has defended the bank’s decision to raise the Monetary Policy Rate to 27.25 per cent, describing it as a necessary move to control inflation and curb excess money in circulation. Cardoso emphasized that the rate hike, while tough on borrowers, is crucial for the country’s economic stability. Cardoso says the decision to raise the Monetary Policy Rate to 27.25 per cent was a bold move adding that it was necessary to curb excess mone...
Oct 07, 2024•1 min
The Federal Government says 63 items have been exempted from Value-Added Tax. Taiwo Oyedele, the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, says the exempted items are contained in an official gazette for the Value Added Tax (Modification) Order, 2024. The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, announced the introduction of concessions to revitalise the oil and gas industry to boost Nigeria’s upstream and downstream sectors. The min...
Oct 07, 2024•1 min
The Federal Government has announced that Nigeria has officially commenced the sales of crude oil and refined petroleum products in naira. The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, says that in line with the Federal Executive Council directive, the sale of the products in naira commenced on October 1. The Director of the Information and Public Relations, Ministry of Finance, Mohammed Manga noted that the strategic initiative and bold step taken by President Bol...
Oct 07, 2024•1 min
Reuters reports that an order from the country’s Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes stated that the Elon Musk-owned social network could “immediately return to its activities in national territory” if it pays a fine of 10 million reais (around $1.9 million). X has been locked in a legal battle over Moraes’ attempt to block certain accounts that he accused of posting election misinformation. Moraes is telling the company to pay this additional fine after X seemed to circumvent the ban earlie...
Sep 30, 2024•1 min
Zimbabwe's central bank has devalued its gold-backed currency by over 40% against the US dollar, indicating that the last-ditch effort to stabilise the country's volatile economy, is in trouble. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe decided to slash the local exchange rate to 24 Zig to $1. This slump is due to an increase in demand for the US dollar, which is also legal tender. It comes after warnings from large retailers of store closures if the rate remained fixed at the previous level. RBZ says that i...
Sep 30, 2024•1 min
The Federal Government says that it has begun the implementation of electricity subsidies for public hospitals nationwide. The Senior Adviser of Media and External Relations to the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Tashikalmah Hallah, says that subsidy on electricity for public hospitals had begun. Hallah also said the government plans to subsidise electricity for private hospitals nationwide. The Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Tunji Alausa, announced that ...
Sep 30, 2024•1 min
The World Bank has approved three operations for a total of $1.57bn to support the Federal Government in strengthening human capital through better health for women, children and adolescents and building resilience to the effects of climate change, such as floods and droughts through improving dam safety and irrigation. The new financing includes $500m for addressing governance issues that constrain education and health delivery, $570m for the Primary Healthcare Provision Strengthening Program a...
Sep 30, 2024•1 min
Organisers of the October 1 protest against hardship in the country have insisted they would proceed with the ‘showdown’ despite kicks by the Federal Government and warning by the Nigerian Police Force. A former presidential candidate and activist who is one of the leaders of the planned Oct 1 protest, Omoyele Sowore, gave an update on his social media platform X on Monday, insisting on the action, and saying it would be held across the country. “NO GOING BACK! #FearlessInOctober”. He says the n...
Sep 30, 2024•57 sec
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is calling for a full return to office at the start of 2025. For the last 15 months, employees have been expected to work in the office three days per week. Now employees will be expected to be in the office five days a week, with work from home being OK only in extenuating circumstances. Big Tech executives have championed return-to-office mandates, but they have proven unpopular among some tech workers. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/...
Sep 23, 2024•46 sec
Sri Lanka's new president Anura Kumara Dissanayake has been sworn into office, promising "clean" politics as the country recovers from its worst economic crisis. The left-leaning Dissanayake says they need to establish a new clean political culture and win back the people’s respect and trust in the political system. Dissanayake says the unity of Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and all Sri Lankans is the bedrock of this new beginning, Dissanayake also promised voters good governance and tough anti-cor...
Sep 23, 2024•51 sec
Women's rights advocates are demanding the immediate implementation of a nearly 30-year-old gender equity bill which Ghana’s president signed into law. Ghana's Affirmative Action (Gender Equality) Act 2024 is expected to ensure a critical number of women hold key positions in government, security, commerce and other decision-making spaces. The law promotes the progressive and active participation of women in public life from a minimum of 30% to 50% by 2030, in line with the UN's Sustainable Deve...
Sep 23, 2024•1 min
The South African Reserve Bank has cut interest rates by 25 basis points, the bank lowered interest rates from 8.25% to 8%. South Africa’s inflation eased to 4.4% after a decrease in transport prices and utility rates. It is the lowest inflation rate since April 2021. SARB governor Lesetja Kganyago says they found 25 to be a prudent stance to take adding that Adventurism is not part of the monetary policy toolkit. He added that both 25 and 50 basis points cuts were on the table but the monetary ...
Sep 23, 2024•56 sec
Kenya has pledged to send 600 more police officers to Haiti in the coming weeks to help fight gangs controlling much of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and nearby areas. Kenya’s President William Ruto says he supported turning the current Kenya-led security mission into a full United Nations peacekeeping operation. A handful of other countries have together pledged at least 1,900 more troops. Violence in Haiti is still rife and a UN human rights expert has warned that gangs are targeting new areas,...
Sep 23, 2024•1 min
The Federal Government has saved a total sum of N900bn proposed to be spent for state governments’ infrastructural development and security between November 2023 and July 2024. The Federal Accounts Allocation Committee deducts the amount disbursed to a special account before its monthly revenue distribution to the three tiers of government. President Bola Tinubu earlier approved the establishment of the Infrastructure Support Fund for the 36 States of the Federation as part of measures to cushio...
Sep 23, 2024•53 sec
The Independent National Electoral Commission has declared Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress as the winner of the 2024 governorship election in the South-South state. Okpebholo, 54, secured 291,667 votes to defeat Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who got 247,274 votes and Olumide Akpata of the Labour Party (LP) who came a distant third in the race with 22,763 votes. Fourteen other candidates contested the seat but got less than the three frontline candidates. Become a...
Sep 23, 2024•55 sec
TikTok will start making its case against a law that will see it banned in the US unless Chinese owner ByteDance sells the social media app within nine months. The measure - signed into law by President Biden in April - has been prompted by concerns that US users' data is vulnerable to exploitation by China's government. TikTok and ByteDance have always denied links to the Chinese authorities and have described the law an "extraordinary intrusion on free speech rights. The firm will make its arg...
Sep 17, 2024•1 min
The government of South Sudan is holding an emergency cabinet meeting hours after it announced that long-delayed national elections would be postponed by two years. The polls were due to take place this December. A 2018 peace deal that ended a civil war allowed President Salva Kiir to remain in charge of a transitional government with his former foe Riek Machar serving as his deputy. South Sudan, the world's youngest country, has not held national elections since independence in 2011. This has f...
Sep 17, 2024•1 min
The Lagos Waste Management Authority plans to introduce community recycling centres to support businesses in the circular economy. LAWMA CEO, Muyiwa Gbadegesin says the centres are part of upcoming innovations from the waste management agency during the Lagos Recyclers Association Conference held on Friday in Lagos State. Gbadegesin says the community recycling centre will be a drop-off point for people in the community to bring recyclable materials, whether it’s paper, PET bottles, other types ...
Sep 17, 2024•1 min
President Bola Tinubu has returned to Abuja after his official visit to China and his short stay in the United Kingdom. President Tinubu held bilateral meetings with President Xi Jinping and Chinese Premier Li Qiang, and there were five memoranda of understanding signed between Nigeria and China. He also attended the forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Beijing, and as chairman of ECOWAS, delivered a paper on global peace, stressing multilateralism and cooperation as essential ingredient...
Sep 17, 2024•1 min
The Dangote Refinery located in Lagos has denied selling petrol to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited at N898 per litre. A spokesman for the refinery Anthony Chiejinadescribed the claim by the NNPCL as “misleading and mischievous”. He urged Nigerians to disregard this malicious statement and await a formal pricing announcement by the Technical Sub-Committee on Naira-based crude sales to local refineries, appointed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He added that they the products to NN...
Sep 17, 2024•1 min
Boeing is offering its staff a 25% pay bump over a four-year contract, in a bid to avoid a strike that could potentially shut down its assembly lines as early as Friday. Union leaders representing more than 30,000 employees have urged the workers to support the proposal, describing it as the best contract they had ever negotiated. Boeing workers in the Seattle and Portland region are set to vote on the deal. The aerospace giant's chief operating officer, Stephanie Pope, described the proposal as...
Sep 12, 2024•1 min
Sudan's military-led government has rejected a call by a UN fact-finding mission for the deployment of an international force to protect civilians from the country’s ongoing civil war. The UN mission reported that Sudan’s warring parties had committed "harrowing" human rights violations against civilians. The UN mission’s lead, Chande Othman, says given the failure of the warring parties to spare civilians, an independent and impartial force with a mandate to safeguard civilians must be deployed...
Sep 12, 2024•1 min
Ethiopia's Prime Minister has warned that anyone planning on invading the country should "think 10 times" before doing so because, any attack would be repelled. Ethiopia has been experiencing some rising tensions with neighbouring Somalia and Egypt. Somalia has described a maritime pact that Mr Abiy's government signed with the self-declared republic of Somaliland in January as an act of "aggression", and has responded by forging closer military ties with Egypt. Egypt has also been involved in a...
Sep 12, 2024•1 min
The Federal Government has signed a $1bn iron ore steel deal project with China. The Minister of Solid Minerals Development Dr Oladele Alake, said the deal was signed for Kogi State as a breakthrough in the Federal Government’s campaign to make local value addition the development model in the solid minerals sector. He says the Federal Government has reversed the pit-to-port policy under which mining companies exported raw minerals to extraction with local value addition which is the best guaran...
Sep 12, 2024•1 min
Brazil's Supreme Court will vote on whether or not to uphold a ruling to ban social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. Justice Alexandre Moraes called for the vote after the platform was suspended in the country in the early hours of Saturday. It came after X failed to appoint a new legal representative in Brazil before a court-imposed deadline. Justice Moraes gave companies, including Apple and Google, a five-day deadline to remove X from its app stores and block its use on iOS and An...
Sep 02, 2024•59 sec
S & P Global Ratings has downgraded Kenya’s credit rating from “B to B-”, meaning that Kenya has now been deemed credit-risky by all three of the biggest credit rating agencies. Due to being credit-risky, raising money from debt instruments will become problematic for Kenya because the borrowing cost becomes expensive. The ratings tell investors that Kenya is not a debt-sustainable country. So, they will be wary now of providing Kenya with loans. After Kenya’s president, William Ruto withdre...
Sep 02, 2024•1 min
Amazon Web Services hosted a summit in Johannesburg, South Africa to discuss the advancements of Generative Artificial Intelligence and committed to making a follow-on investment of $1.7 billion by 2029 to increase renewable energy supply to its data centres. AWS has two of its three data centres located in South Africa. At least one of them consumes about 1,000 megawatts of electricity. AWS will use that investment to generate more electricity to sustain the high demand for storage for data poi...
Sep 02, 2024•1 min
The Global Environment Facility has approved $3.28m to tackle land degradation in Kebbi State under the National Agency for the Great Green Wall initiative. The Operational Focal Point for GEF, Jonah Stanley, says GEF is a multilateral environmental fund that provides grants and blended finance for projects related to biodiversity, climate change, international waters, and land degradation, among others. Stanley noted that GEF was a funding mechanism that supported more than 185 countries around...
Sep 02, 2024•1 min
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited says the company’s significant debt to petrol suppliers poses a threat to the sustainability of fuel supply. There have been reports that a $6 billion debt the NNPCL owes petrol suppliers has worsened petrol scarcity in Nigeria, a perennial feature since the beginning of 2024. NNPCL spokesman Olufemi Soneye says the financial strain has placed considerable pressure on the company and poses a threat to the sustainability of fuel supply. He says they...
Sep 02, 2024•1 min
The Central Bank of Nigeria revealed that Nigeria’s Letter of Credit payments dropped by 57 per cent in the first seven months of 2024. The CBN’s weekly International Payments Data shows that the country’s Letter of Credit payments dropped to $391.91m from $912.35m within the same period in 2023. An analysis of the CBN data showed that the highest LC payments this year were recorded in February at $102.59m, followed by July at $79.65m and $58.33m in January. In March, LCs payments stood at $43.5...
Sep 02, 2024•1 min
